Saturday, June 02, 2012

The following text was written by Will Prosper, a community organizer in Montreal North has been posted on CMAQ. He brings up some important points for people to consider, so i am reposting it here with permission:

Before I begin: this is strictly based on my own observations,
I will scratch the surface but this is not an in depth look.

My first thought when the student strike started was to look for the
involvement of blacks and the different ethnic groups from Montreal in the
strike. Because, of course, for me it was easy to see the need to not increase
but rather to eradicate the tuition fees, in order to provide an equal chance
for all in higher education.

I know a tuition increase will have a direct impact on the
enrolment of black students since we are on average one third poorer than the
average population. Plus, more and more black youth (especially males) are
quitting school before they graduate. Though blacks are getting more university
diplomas on average than the rest of the population from Quebec, a 2008 study
from McGill University showed that a black person who graduates from university
will have less chance of finding a job in Quebec than a white person who doesn’t
even have a secondary 5 diploma (high school diploma). Worse, blacks that
graduate from the 2nd cycle of university (with an MA or PhD) will earn $20,000
less than a white person with the same diplomas. I should also mention that
females are also earning less than their counterparts but I don’t have the
numbers.

So knowing all these facts I agree with Ajamu Nangwaya that
the different students unions should also be fighting harder against these
inequalities that face blacks and different minority groups.

The CLASSE (the far left student group) adopted an
anti-racist mandate which is a good step. But a black female colleague of mine
who is part of a union at a college affiliated with the CLASSE recently attended
a CLASSE assembly where she was treated like an outsider as soon as she came through
the door. She was asked if she was lost by one of the hosts - of course that
question was never asked to any of the whites present. I understand that this might
be an isolated example, but to me it shows the mentality of the members who feel
it’s not normal for a black person to be part of a student organization such as
“La CLASSE”. I guess I don’t need to add that there were simply no visible
minorities taking part in the assembly. Also, through my participation in the
different student groups around Montreal, I rarely see visible minorities, often
there are none. While the reasons behind the lack of visible minorities in the
student unions are far more complex, the fact that there is presently no
spokesperson, not a single one in any of the different groups, who is from a
visible minority or even from the anglophone community doesn’t help these
people to be more involved in a cause where they should be front and center.

Another factor, especially for blacks (and particularly for Haitians), is that our
parents always taught us to study hard and that we should work our asses off to
succeed in life. This is very similar in all communities, but where there is a
difference, is that the parents of our parents were very poor and they worked
their asses off to send their children (our parents) to expensive schools in
Haiti and abroad. Therefore, for Haitians and other minorities, it’s considered
normal to have an 82% increase in order to have access to a great education.

On the political level, another factor is that most visible minority
immigrants came under a Liberal government in Canada and a lot of them remain
loyal to the end, no matter what the Liberals do. Another unfortunate thing is
that a lot of them stay on the surface and see that the PLQ (Parti Libéral du
Québec) have a couple of token minorities in their party and they are satisfied
with that. Also, the different parties usually don’t reach out to the visible
minorities, therefore on a political level a lot of blacks remain disconnected from
everything that is going on.

But one of the main political problems, I believe, is that during
the defeat of the referendum, in 1995, Parti Québécois (PQ) leader Jacques
Parizeau said, “If we lost, it’s because of money and the ethnic groups.” These
words, to this very day, sow fear in most of the ethnic groups in Quebec.
Because what this sentence says to many of them is, “Not only do we feel that
ethnic groups will never be Quebeckers, but if Quebec becomes independent you
will not be welcome here.” Since then the PQ has tried hard to erase that
memory from ethnic groups but without success. The reason why I’ve mentioned
this is that a lot of the ethnic groups associate the student movement with French-speaking
Quebeckers who are separatist; I think this might be true for many of them, but
most of them are leftists first. But in the minds of the ethnic groups they remember
the previously mentioned statement.

So these are some of the things I was initially hearing from
the community, but since Bill 78 the debate has evolved. I remember that during
the first big demonstration on March 22nd I saw some visible minorities, but
not as many as during the most recent big one on May 22nd.

Another incident for me is the huge “Speak Red” video made
by students to support the strike (here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkbBeQ21d1c).
It’s a great idea that was taken from a text called “Speak White” by Michèle
Lalonde, which denounced the bad situation of French-speakers in Quebec and took
form as a collective complaint against English-speaking Quebeckers. But in this
video (Speak Red) you have over 25 people appearing and you don’t have a single
visible minority. This video is not too different from all the other ones that
we see again and again, with only white francophone in the forefront. It gives many
people the impression that this crisis is only being led by a single group.
(BTW I’ve contacted both groups who told me they didn’t know or notice their
discriminatory actions.)

Guess what? Last Friday when I saw that the Canadian Federation of Students had
come out in support of the Quebec movement, it was the first time that I saw a
black person as a spokesperson for a student group – and it was from the anglophone
community, from Ontario – ouch!

The situation in Quebec is very particular as we have a
francophone minority living in a sea of anglophones. While they rightly want to
preserve their francophone culture, they have often oppressed the other
minorities while fighting for it. As for myself, I’m working hard to
participate (4-6 protests a week) and organizing many demonstrations, especially
in Montreal-North (a very ethnically diverse community which seems totally
disconnected from the student movement). I’d like to add that since Bill 78 a
lot more visible minorities have come to protests as the bill violates a lot of
our rights as found in the Charter of Rights. But those in the forefront unfortunately
remain the same. I don’t believe that nobody from the francophone community has
noticed the absence of visible minorities, but not many people are fighting to change
things. I will keep on fighting from the inside, against inequalities and
discrimination.

I strongly support the student movement and the fight against Bill 78, but I
wish it was my only fight. However, some students, organizers, journalists and
others also need some higher education.